My mom came up with all kinds of reasons why she didn’t want to get off drugs, but I think one of the most poignant ones was her feeling of shame about becoming an addict with two young children. Her parenting standards were so high that I don’t think she could ever truly get sober knowing what she had put my sisters through. The one thing that she had always really prided herself on was that she was a great mother. She said, “My music wasn’t that successful, I didn’t finish high school, I’m not beautiful, I’m not good enough—but I’m a great mother.”
